My Little Pony
Lost to time
A mare walked through the halls of a temple, her hoofs made no sound as she walked the silent and empty halls because all that touched the floor as she walked was curling mist, there were no lights to show her the way but she did not need any as she herself glowed. Her large ears were down and her head was hung as she walked, the temple she walked through was making her depressed for reasons only few would understand. The mare exited the temple into the night, overhead the moon and stars shone brightly as if singing to her, she managed a smile as she sat down on top of a cliff and closed her eyes, she raised her ears and listened to the sounds of the world around her; to any other pony-folk they would hear nothing unusual, but she heard sweet music that helped to lift her heavy heart.
Time seemed like nothing to the mare as she sat there listening to the music only she could hear, hour could have passed or only minutes. But the spell of the music was broken when her ears picked up the sound of bells and soft hoofsteps. The mare opened her eyes and looked over to where she heard the bells coming from, approaching her was a bearded male unicorn wearing a blue cape and pointed hat decorated with stars and moons and bells.
"Starswirl, my friend, what brings you so far from your home?" The mare spoke, her voice held a cultured tone.
"I am merely coming to visit you, I have not seen you in quite a few moons." Starswirl spoke in a low voice that was comforting but at the same time demanded attention.
"I have been traveling. I arrived home not too long ago."
Starswirl looked at his friend with sympathy, knowing the reason behind her travels.
"You have not found them have you?" he asked.
The mare hung her head and closed her eyes to try and stop the tears.
"No. All of the other temples were as empty as mine and I was the first of my kind anypony had seen in their generation."
The mare sighed as she looked up again to the stars with tears glistening in her eyes.
"I am weary my friend. I fear I am truly the last." She said.
"Have you found why?" Starswirl asked.
The mare shook her head.
"No. It's like they just...disappeared." She said.
"Shifter, you are welcome to stay with Clover and I if you do not wish to stay in the temple." The stallion offered.
The now-named Shifter once again shook her head.
"No, I could never leave the temple, it is where I was raised and it is where I will stay. Even though the empty halls remind me of how busy they once were when I was a filly and I can no longer feel the strong hum of magic the temple had it is still my home." She said with devotion.
Before Shifter could stop herself she let out a yawn, conveying how tired she truly was.
Starswirl let out a chuckle as Shifter when slightly red.
"It seems that you need to sleep." He said.
"Yes," Shifter admitted. "I did not get much rest during my travels, I will sleep for a few weeks in my crystal chamber. As there is none of my kind to wake me anymore I give you permission to enter the temple in a few weeks time to wake me."
"I will."
Shifter stood and walked back into the temple.
"Goodnight my friend!" she called back to the stallion.
"Goodnight!" Starswirl returned
Starswirl watched his friend walk into the temple until he could no longer see her glow before heading home himself, he had a spell he was working on to finish.
Back in the temple Shifter walked through the hall, passing many doors on the way, until she reached a door with the words 'crystal chamber' etched into it in her own language, she whistled and the door opened to revel a rather large room decorated with gems of all different colours. Like all the other times she had been here Shifter checked all around the room to see is she missed somepony in one of the sleeping chambers but like all the other times she found nopony, she sighed in disappointment. Shifter moved to one of the many crystal platforms in the room and lay down on it, a gem that was stuck to her forehead glowed as she activated her magic, the platform glowed as well and crystals began to grow from the edges and continue growing until they formed a thick dome around Shifter. Shifter yawned one last time before closing her eyes and falling asleep while the magic from the crystals around her kept her safe and rejuvenated her.
Unknown to Shifter her sleep would last much longer than a few weeks as Starswirl would not be able to come and wake her.
Twilight sat under a tree as she read one of the books that Princess Celestia had sent to her, the weather wasn't the best and one days like this she would be reading in her library, but Twilight was still uncomfortable in her new castle home despite her friends adding their own touches to make it more homely and the Golden Oaks library had that familiar and comforting smell of old books that her castle's library lacked. So Twilight sat outside reading a book titled, 'Lost beings of Equestria', it was a book about the various creatures and types of ponies that once existed in Equestria but for some reason or another no longer did.
"Chapter 8. Puca." Twilight read aloud from the book. "Puca, also called Pooka, phouka, etc. were a race of that similar to ponies. Not much is known about Pucas as they were a race that kept mainly to themselves and would easily take offence to those who tried to research them, most information comes from observations and theories, because of this most information about them is unreliable. Pucas had their own brand of magic specific to them, they used their magic to change themselves into different creatures and ponies, this meant that they could grow wings and become a Pegasus if they wished to fly; Pucas had only been witnessed changing into other types of ponies but it is theorised they could go beyond just types of ponies."
Twilight looked at the drawing that accompanied the chapter, it had faded a lot due to the age of the book and poor quality of the ink used for it but she could make out a being that looked like a pony only its tail was similar to a lion's tail more than a pony tail and it had what looked like horns coming out of its head.
"These beings were also known to be quite powerful," Twilight continued to read. "Some even argued they were on the same power level as an Alicorn , but as Puca were so secretive and didn't show off the full extent on their magic no pony can know if that was true. It is unknown why the Puca died out and no reason was ever given, all that is known is that their numbers decreased until there were none left. The last known Puca before she too disappeared was friends with Starswirl the Bearded as she was sometimes written about in the few journals he kept that have been found."
Twilight then turned the page to the next chapter.
Not far from where Twilight was reading some construction ponies were getting to work building some new houses for Ponyville, recently new had been getting around that a Princess lived in the small town and so more ponies were coming to live there, but all of the houses were now occupied so they had to make more to incorporate the new ponies trying to move there. The first thing they had to do was dig so they got their shovels and did so, they dug until one of them hit something solid that made a ringing sound.
"What the?" the stallion said.
The stallion placed down his shovel and used his hooves to clear away the soil to uncover something metal.
"Hey, look at this!" the stallion called out to his fellow workers.
The ponies gathered around to look at it.
"What is it?" a mare asked.
"I don't know, let's dig it up and see."
The construction ponies spent the next few minutes digging up the metal object, once they were done they saw it was some kind of flat metal disk covered in symbols that was roughly the size of a pony.
"What is it?" the mare asked again.
"Still don't know." The stallion said. "Hey, let's go get princess Twilight Sparkle. She'll know what to do."
"Good idea, you stay here, I'll go find the princess." Another stallion said, quickly galloping off to find Twilight.
While the other workers waited they decided to inspect the disk.
"I wonder what these symbols mean, I've never seen them before." The mare said as she looked at the disk.
"Careful, we don't want anything happening to it." The stallion warned.
"What could come from just looking."
The mare suddenly lost her balance and threw her hooves out in front of her to catch herself, her hooves landed on the very centre of the disk and she felt something give way, looking down she saw that the centre of the disk had been a button of some sort and she had just pressed it.
"Oops." She laughed nervously.
A moment passed and the construction ponies sighed in relief thinking that nothing had happened, but then the disk started to hum and lift out of the soil and into the air. The symbols on the disk glowed and is started to spin while the humming grew louder and the wind began to pick up. The construction ponies quickly backed away while Twilight arrived on the scene.
"What happened?" Twilight asked.
"I accidently pressed something in the middle and it started doing this." The mare said.
Twilight looked and the spinning disk and examined it, it didn't seem to be causing any trouble but that could easily change, so she decided on a simple containment spell to move it to a more open space in case something did happen and somepony got hurt. Twilight's horn glowed and a bubble appeared around the disk, but when Twilight moved the bubble the disk stayed where it was and just phased through the bubble as if the bubble wasn't there.
"What?" Twilight exclaimed, not understanding how the containment spell didn't work. "Why didn't that do anything."
"Maybe it's an illusion." Spike suggested as he ran to Twilight's side.
Twilight shook her head. "If it was I don't think the wind would be acting this way." She said, taking notice that the wind was picking up and fallen leaves were being swept about.
Twilights tried the containment spell again but got the same result, she then tried other spells but each of them did nothing to the spinning disk that seemed to be spinning even faster. The alicorn grew more frustrated with each failure.
"Spike!" she called to her dragon assistant.
"Yes, Twilight?" Spike asked.
"I need to send a letter to princess Celestia about this."
Spike hurriedly went back to the tree Twilight had been sitting under and grabbed a quill and empty roll of parchment, he went back to Twilight and wrote down her message about the disk before sending it using his fire.
Celestia stared up at the spinning disk along with the Mane 6 and the rest of Ponyville, the wind was blowing so hard that all of the birds had to take shelter or risk being blown around. Like Twilight the princess had tried using her magic to stop the disk but the object seemed unaffected by magic, the other members on the Mane 6 had also tried to stop it but it was spinning so fast that any objects thrown at it bounced off and Rainbow Dash's attempts to created a tornado that span in the opposite direction to the disk to get it to slow down also didn't work. But other than a high wind the disk didn't seem to be doing anything.
"What are we going to do?" Twilight asked. "Magic doesn't affect it and we can't get close enough to touch it."
"There must be a way." Celestia said. "Some construction ponies uncovered it, correct?"
"Yes."
"Then they must have gotten a good look at it, if we know what it looks like we can maybe find an answer as to what it is."
They quickly went to the construction pony who described the disk.
"It was about the size of a pony and as thick as a leg, it had symbols carved all around it that I didn't recognise and the middle of it seemed to be a button, when it was accidently pressed the symbols lit up." The stallion said.
"Well that's helpful." Rainbow Dash said sarcastically.
"Well, let's start some research." Twilight said gleefully.
Twilight moaned, it had been nearly a day and she had found nothing. And this disk was starting to cause such high winds that Pegasus ponies were starting to become afraid of taking off and getting swept away in the winds like the birds.
"Why can't I find anything?" she moaned.
"Maybe it's because there is nothing to find." Said a painfully familiar voice.
A door appeared out of nowhere before a disembodied lion arm opened it and Discord stepped through, the door vanishing behind him.
"What are you doing here?" Twilight asked.
"Well, I was on my way to my annual tea party with Fluttershy when I could help but notice the problem you're having, it's a bit hard to miss when you're the spirit of chaos." Discord said.
"Does that mean you can stop it?"
"But why would I want to stop such fun?"
Twilight looked sternly at him.
"Oh, all right. But I'm going to meet with Fluttershy first."
Before Twilight could tell Discord to take care of the disk first he was gone, she groaned before making her way to Fluttershy's cottage.
When Twilight reached the cottage she found Discord and Fluttershy engaged in conversation while drinking tea.
"Discord!" Twilight yelled.
Fluttershy jumped a bit from Twilight's yell while Discord turned to face the angry princess as if he had done nothing wrong.
"Yes, Twilight?" he asked politely.
"Get out there and stop that disk!" she ordered.
"Not until you say please." Discord folded his arms stubbornly.
Twilight was about to yell again before Fluttershy stopped her.
"It is polite to ask." Fluttershy reminded Twilight.
Twilight took a deep breath to calm herself.
"Discord, will you please try and stop that disk?" She asked, her voice slightly strained.
Discord tapped a digit against his chin as he looked upwards in thought, he went into numerous thinking positions while Twilight forced herself to remain calm, finally he answered.
"Alright, since you asked so nicely." He answered.
Twilight let out the breath she had been holding as they left Fluttershy's cottage and went towards the spinning disk.
Discord did a ridiculous amount of 'warming up' before he simply clicked his fingers. The disk, however, did not react how he expected it to, it started reacting violently and flying around everywhere, anything it came in contact with it cut right through it.
"What did you do?" Twilight demanded as she and Fluttershy took cover from the disk.
"I don't know, while I'm not going to argue with the results I was trying to stop it." Discord insisted, body separating in half to avoid the disk cutting through him.
As the disk past him Discord managed to get a good look at it and it caused him to gasp. "No, it can't be." He whispered.
The disk flew high up into the sky where it finally stopped it's wave of chaos, it was still spinning and causing high winds though. Discord looked up at it with his mouth gaping.
"Great." Rainbow Dash complained as she appeared on the scene with the rest of the Mane 6. "You managed to make it worse."
But Fluttershy had noticed Discords reaction. "You know what it is, don't you?" she asked.
Discord nodded, all of his usual energy seemed to have been sucked out of him. "That belongs to something long gone, or rather a race of pony long gone. Only they would be able to stop it. You may be able to find something in the ruins of where they once dwelled."
"Where?" Twilight asked.
Discord reached into his body as if it were a coat with pockets and produced a map. "This will guide you." He said before simply disappearing, the map dropping before Twilight caught it with her magic.
"Is it me or did he seem not quite like himself?" Rarity asked.
"I think that was obvious to everyone." Applejack commented.
"Well, we can check on him when this is all over." Twilight said as she looked at the map Discord had left. "Right now we need to find something to stop that disk."
"I do hope he'll be alright." Flutter Shy said.
"He's Discord, I bet he'll be back to his usual annoying self by the time we get back." Rainbow Dash said.
"Right," Twilight interrupted. "I know which way to go and how to get there. Go pack and meet at the station as soon as you can."
The ponies nodded and ran off to pack their bags for the trip.
The Mane six stepped off the train and it departed soon after, they were in the middle of nowhere and the only reason there was a train platform to get off at was because of the unique plants and animals that only existed in that part of Equestria that many ponies liked to visit.
"Anyone else getting a feeling like we've done this before?" Rainbow Dash asked. "If Discord leads us to another place like the town Starlight Glimmer ran-"
"I'm sure Discord wouldn't do that." Fluttershy defended her friend.
While her friends talked Twilight took out her map and examined it, turning it and moving herself around until she was able to figure out which direction they had to go next. Eventually she aligned the map up with where they were.
"Alright, we need to head into a valley, it should be between those two mountains." She said, pointing towards two small mountains.
The mountains weren't that far away so the ponies began making there way to the valley.
Inside a crystal a mare slept like she had done for centuries, her dreams filled with memories, she knew she had to wake but the world created by her mind gripped her tightly.
/
A filly and a colt rolled around in the grass together, laughing as they played.
"Got yah!" the filly announced triumphantly as she pinned the colt.
"Shifter, you're heavy!" the colt complained.
Shifter grinned and got off the colt. She then put her head back with her ears open as she listened to the world around her.
The colt tried to copy her but all he heard was the wind blowing through the trees and the sounds of animals as they went about their business, he then frowned.
"What are you always hearing that I can't?" he whined.
Shifter looked at him. "The music." She answered.
"What music?"
"The music the plants and wind make as they play in harmony."
"I can't hear anything."
"That's because you're trying to hard, you're forcing yourself and it's stopping you from hearing what is there."
The colt pouted and got up, walking back towards the temple.
"Wisp!" Shifter called after him, quickly catching up with him. "Look, not everyone can connect so closely to nature as I. Many other Puca cannot hear the music either."
"It's not that, everypony has already found a talent they excel in the most yet everything I try just blows up in my face, many a time quite literally."
"Maybe the your focus of magic is so obscure that it simply take time to find."
Wisp huffed. "Maybe." He agreed.
/
An older Shifter and Wisp walked a path only clear to them, walking by trees with only the moonlight as their guidance until they reached a hidden clearing with a pool of crystalline water. A gem on Shifter's forehead glinted in the moonlight but Wisp's own head had no gem.
"Don't listen to the others." Shifter told Wisp. "You'll get your gem and when you do they'll all be jealous."
Wisp said nothing and continued to look at the reflection of the moon.
Shifter frowned at Wisp's lack of reaction but continued to try and cheer him up. "They're probably already jealous considering how good you are at changing forms, ironic considering my name is Shifter yet you're better than me."
"You've got your pony forms perfected while I can't hold them for that long, how is that better than you?" Wisp finally said.
"It's just the way we go about our magic, I take my time perfecting each of my forms while you're able to change your form into a wide range of other forms. I can't even get grow a beak yet but you were able to become a griffin, a lion and even a dragon within the span of a few seconds!"
"Those weren't intentional."
"But it shows your potential. You just have to practice."
Shifter was standing in front of Wisp, desperately trying to convince him that he wasn't weak like the others had told him.
Shifter sighed and sat down again. "You're not the only one they pick on, they just pick on me less because they're afraid, more than once I've heard them whispering about my fascination with the other cultures."
Wisp said nothing but moved his tail so it was over Shifter's back, she smiled at him and copied his action; both comforting each other with the knowledge that they weren't alone.
/
Shifter walked into the library in search of Wisp, she followed the music of the wind as it directed her deeper and deeper into the library until she reached the section that was forbidden by the elders. She was about to head back when she noticed the gate that separated the section was slightly agar.
"He wouldn't." Shifter said.
She walked forward and pressed her leg to the gate, it swung open with a slight creek, looking around nervously that she might get caught she continued forward. She found Wisp hidden away in a corner with a candle for light as he read some scrolls.
"Wisp!" Shifter cried. "What are you doing here? You know this place is forbidden!"
Wisp was startled and dropped the scroll he was reading.
"I was just looking." He said.
"Well, just looking could get us into a whole lot of trouble. Let's get out of here before we're caught."
Shifter used her magic to roll the scrolls back up and shoved them on some random shelves, she then blew out the candle and started shoving Wisp out of the room.
"Okay, okay." Wipe said as he walked out on his own.
What Shifter failed to notice was that Wisp had his bag with him and inside that bag was a scroll from the most dangerous part of the forbidden section.
/
Shifter was running some errands for the elders when she saw Wisp getting confronted by the usual bullies.
"Here we go again." She said as she trotted over to defend him.
However, when she reached them she did not find the usual scenario. Usually, the bullies would be picking on Wisp for his lack of control of his magic while Wisp either tried to get away or defend himself to no avail, at which point she would intervene and use her higher control of her magic to scare them away or threaten them with getting an elder as they tended to favour her. What she found was Wisp in the form of a unicorn, his horn glowing with magic as the bullies floated out of control in the air while getting pelted with mud.
"Wisp, put them down, I think they learned whatever lesson you're trying to give them." Shifter said, shocked at her friend's actions.
The Puca looked down on violence as a way to solve conflict and Wisp would no doubt get in trouble with the elders should one of them tell on him.
"I am merely repaying them back for all their years of torment." Wisp said with a grin.
"But they never did anything physical like you are now, you'll be seen as the bad guy. Put them down now!" Shifter demanded.
Wisp sighed but did as he was told, he cut his magic and the bullies dropped to the ground in an undignified heap.
Shifter walked over to them and used her magic to banish the mud from them.
"You will not speak of this to the elders. Am I clear?" she told them.
They nodded in fright before running away.
"Why did you do that? If they tell you will be in so much trouble." Shifter turned on her friend.
"I was just testing out my magic." Wisp said, turning back to his normal form.
"What..." That was when Shifter realised that Wisp had done magic that he previously couldn't do without disastrous consequences. "But...how?"
"I guess you were right, I am able to do great magic, it was only a matter of waiting."
Shifter frowned, Wisp was too old to just suddenly be able to use his magic to its full effect like that, yet she said nothing and acted happy for him.
/
Shifter sat on her own by the moon pool she and Wisp often visited as their special place, but now there was no Wisp with her and there never would be again. It had only been a couple of hours prior when her elder came to her and told her that Wisp was gone, she had begged why but all she was told that the friend she thought of as a brother was gone and could never return.
But this gave her hope, she was old enough to understand the concept of death and her elder would have told her straight out if Wisp had re-joined with magic, which meant her friend was somewhere out there but unable to return to her. Shifter could not abandon the pony she thought of as her brother, she would look for him, even if it meant dropping her studies and leaving the temple.
Shifter placed her bag containing all of her things on her back and set off into a world she had only ever seen in scrolls.
Shifter travelled far and wide, from the land of Equestria to beyond, she met many interesting pony folk and non-pony folk alike and become friends with some of them, including a young male unicorn, but she never found Wisp. She eventually returned to the temple defeated in her search only to find all of her kin were nowhere to be found.
/
The mare whimpered in her sleep, the unhappy memories threatening to wake her, but then her dreams changed to a reality where Wisp and her kind never disappeared and she settled again.